Sunday, December 10, 2017

Star Wars Galactic Heroes - ROSE!

Playskool really needs to step up their game. They have access to some of the greatest character families out there, but they seem to just release the same characters over and over again...and at a snail's pace. This Rose figure was a welcome surprise, but I'm still shocked they haven't flexed their muscles with this line. There isn't even a Princess Leia or Amidala. And when they finally impressed me a few years ago with packaged solicit pics of Hera Syndulla and Sabine Wren, it was inevitable that the figures would never actually hit the shelves. And I won't even get started on the Marvel line. They have access to hundreds of characters and the only female so far is Black Widow. I was 100% sure we'd see a Gamora figure, even if it was just a Natasha repaint, but there has been nothing. A Storm, Wasp, and Invisible Woman seem like really easy characters to bring in to the line, but Playskool seems to want to coast on the same handful of characters in a constant cycle. Someday they'll hopefully up their game.

I think this little unassuming figure actually contains a big spoiler for the film. All the toys of Rose seem to have a couple consistencies. One of these is her small orange and black tool, likely some kind of futuristic mechanics welder (purely speculation on my part). Well this figure seems to show that little tool ablaze in electric flares like a weapon. Very curious to see if this is a plot point.

So the new Power Up arm-swapping feature is pretty dumb. This lets you remove a character's arms and swap them with another character. Preschool toys need to be concerned about small removable parts, so these weapons are always molded into the hands. This swap feature lets you change up who is holding the lightsabre, etc. But the weapons seem so specific for the characters and the arm sculpts are unique, so I can't imagine any kids actually partaking of this feature.

So my figure has a light crack in the female end of the weapon arm. This is likely a flaw. However, it enables that arm to function like a true ball-joint.

I thought I would post a comparison of the original Resistance Rey vs the version from this set with the Power Up arms. The new face is actually nicer looking (I think it's just a slightly altered paintjob) but I much prefer the older version that can old her arms down.